Literary Fiction Just Doesn't Do it For Me and I'm not sure why

Gammer · Feb 26, 2012

This isn't a rant or slamming literary fiction or anything like that, I'm just trying to figure out this hang up I have with literary fiction.

I want to be a writer (obviously hence being on this site) and taken several creative writing classes and in all of them we're not allowed to write genre fiction only literary fiction and we've read several of the greats like Hemingway, Joyce Carol Oates, Flannery O' Connor, Gaberial Garcia Marquez, Tim O'Brien and so on and my teacher touted them as being one of the absolute best modern writers and we can learn a lot from them and so fourth. I read them....and.....nothing.

Reading through their stories, I was just bored. Nothing seemed to be happening and sometimes when something did happen there was such a giant leap in logic that I just couldn't follow and my teacher just said my confusion was a good thing, which I just don't get. Marquez, I did like because his stories were straight forward and pretty interesting. With "Innocent Erendira" being my favorite story we read. But everything else...I just couldn't get behind. "A Good Man is Hard to Find" my teacher said was the best short story he's ever read. I read it....and I just couldn't see what the hype was.

Then when I write my literary stories for the class my teacher said it was too direct and didn't say anything about the human condition. To which I said, "Why does every story need to have some grand message about being human? What's wrong with a story just being fun and exciting?" And my teacher said I don't have the mindset of an artist, which just confused me even more.

Am I just looking at literary fiction the wrong way? Or is it something else?

Literateparakeet · Feb 26, 2012

Gammer, I love literary fiction, but I don't think it is for everyone and that's ok. I don't like sci-fi, but I don't lose any sleep over it.

Of course, you have to write what your teachers want, but when you are not in class, write what you want! I don't see any reason to try and force yourself to like Lit.

I would suggest though, if you haven't already done it, experiment with different styles and genres. I tried Western for the contest here on site and was surprised that I liked it. I also tried fantasy (which I love to read) but that was a mess. I don't have the creativity needed for world building. Anyway if you have been "stuck" writing literary in your classes, you may not have found the genres you really love to write yet.

Toothpaste · Feb 26, 2012

And of course you aren't going to read every literary work out there in one class. If your teacher is responsible for choosing what you read, it's just possible you don't have the same taste. There are certain kinds of literary fiction I can't read at all, and I used to think that that meant I didn't like it in general. But it's not so. I just didn't like those authors.

Don't force yourself to like anything you don't, but don't close yourself off to the possibility of discovering something you might like

.

Xelebes · Feb 26, 2012

Take what you can get. You're not going to be enamoured by every writer. You like Marquez. Run with that.

I think the key about being exposed to so many writers is so that you can be exposed to many styles. Many of these writers have been very influential in genre fiction.

jjdebenedictis · Feb 26, 2012

Yeah, it sounds like you and your teacher just have different tastes.

However, the comment about you not having the mindset of an artist is petty snobbery. Your teacher obviously doesn't consider genre writers artists, and that's bollocks.

Novels are entertainment. However, literary fiction is aimed at people who entertained best (or perhaps I should say "excited") by careful explorations of the human condition.

Not everyone is. Wanting stories to be "fun and exciting" implies you're more likely to be entertained by genre fiction--which also explores the human condition, although that's not its primary goal.

WordCount · Feb 26, 2012

All I can say is, "Your a person, and you have an opinion."

My teacher made us read "The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros. I didn't like one word of it.

Then, we read Fahrenheit 451, and I fell in love. Bradbury is now my second favorite author because of it.

And, by the way, what exactly is the difference between literary fiction and mainstream. I've researched it, and can't seem to find a well detailed answer. It may not be obvious to me because all I read is mainstream, but from my understanding, the whole difference is theme. Is that correct? If so, then I can think of about ten Stephen King and Ray Bradbury novels that should be considered literary and aren't.

kuwisdelu · Feb 26, 2012

WordCount said:
And, by the way, what exactly is the difference between literary fiction and mainstream. I've researched it, and can't seem to find a well detailed answer. It may not be obvious to me because all I read is mainstream, but from my understanding, the whole difference is theme. Is that correct?

No.

I like this definition pretty well.

Cyia · Feb 26, 2012

Forced reading has a habit of leaving a bad taste in your mouth. Maybe you should look for something in the literary genre that you can read or put down at will without having someone grade you at completion.

CrastersBabies · Feb 26, 2012

It depends on the author for me. Sometimes, I just got so sick of the emo bull$*** that you find in lit-fic. Oh my God, someone's dog died. Someone's kid died. Someone is dying from cancer. Someone is in a bad marriage, being molested, having the worst day ever and I WILL USE THE POWER OF INTROSPECTION to make everyone so painfully AWARE of it all.

It makes me want to jump off a bridge.

My only advice is not to give up. Flannery O'Connor isn't for everyone. I definitely came to appreciate her more over time. Alice Munro on the other hand I loathed and often found myself wondering why this chick was lauded so profusely.

Sorry, Alice.

You named some authors that I dig, but ya know what? It's preference. You're not smarter or dumber for not liking lit-fic.

Keep trying. Have you read Sherman Alexie? Denis Johnson? T.C. Boyle?

Some fiction (regardless of what type it is) IS boring. If you don't like it, no foul.

thothguard51 · Feb 26, 2012

As far as literary vs genre writing; it would be very boring if everyone wrote in the same genre, the same style, the same basic story over and over again...

Read what you like, write what you like, and don't worry about the rest.

WordCount · Feb 26, 2012

kuwisdelu said:
No.

I like this definition pretty well.

Thanks, that answered about four months of questions.

So let me get this straight.

Commercial novels- Mostly about story; can have well-drawn characters, but they are seen doing things, not thinking about them in long detail.

Literary- Extremely layered and well-drawn character study; usually has little to no plot

Xelebes · Feb 26, 2012

WordCount said:
Thanks, that answered about four months of questions.

So let me get this straight.

Commercial novels- Mostly about story; can have well-drawn characters, but they are seen doing things, not thinking about them in long detail.

Literary- Extremely layered and well-drawn character study; usually has little to no plot

Literary certainly has plot. Character studies are character studies, not stories.

WordCount · Feb 26, 2012

According to what I read in the above article, Nathan stated that half of the lit. novels he gets have next to no plot, and it's all working inside the mind of the character. It's based on small decisions, the facts of every-day life, etc.

Alessandra Kelley · Feb 26, 2012

I disliked, and in some cases was rendered nearly suicidally despairing by, many of the authors I had to read in high school: Steinbeck, Hemingway, Dostoevsky, Sartre, Flannery O'Conner, Arthur Miller, John Cheever, James Dickey, Melville, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. A friend called them "books to slit your wrists by."

Just once I would have liked to read something witty, or unfashionable-in-New-York, or light.

It says something that their idea of humorous reading was Dorothy Parker.

Since school my reading tastes have expanded to include some of what I was taught was Great Books (I still shudder at the phrase), and as long as I don't have to conform to somebody else's lesson plan of What They Have to Mean, I'm okay. But really, it's a matter of taste. You don't have to like a particular genre (and Literary Fiction is a genre, even if they pretend it isn't), and there's nothing wrong with that.

jjdebenedictis said:
Yeah, it sounds like you and your teacher just have different tastes.

However, the comment about you not having the mindset of an artist is petty snobbery. Your teacher obviously doesn't consider genre writers artists, and that's bollocks.

Oh boy, I got a lot of that in art school. I went to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a serious and seriously conceptual art school (not exactly my favored style of artmaking). Some of my teachers were fantastic, irreplaceable, but some ...

Well, I had some hard moments.

Don't let snarky teachers get you down. Enjoy what you enjoy, and don't feel obligated to like anything.

HoneyBadger · Feb 26, 2012

WordCount said:
According to what I read in the above article, Nathan stated that half of the lit. novels he gets have next to no plot, and it's all working inside the mind of the character. It's based on small decisions, the facts of every-day life, etc.

No, the *bad* stuff is plotless.

First off, I'd like to bust one of the myths about literary fiction -- that it doesn't have a plot. Sooooooooo much literary fiction I get in the old query inbox is plotless. It's just a character musing about the vagaries and eccentricities of everyday existence. The prose is lush, the character detailed, but one problem -- absolutely nothing is happening and thus it's (forgive me) extremely boring. Good literary fiction has a plot. It starts in one place and ends in another. The characters face challenges and evolve. Even in quiet books like GILEAD (a seriously amazing book, btw), things happen. A literary novel might not end in a shootout or with the death of an albino, but there's a plot there.

There aren't a lot of universal truths regarding fiction, but one generally true-truth is that literary fiction requires more work from the reader than mainstream fiction does. I'm gonna call this a literary answer and let you, the reader, figure out what the hell I'm talking about because I'm too tired to think about this so much.

kuwisdelu · Feb 26, 2012

WordCount said:
So let me get this straight.

Commercial novels- Mostly about story; can have well-drawn characters, but they are seen doing things, not thinking about them in long detail.

Literary- Extremely layered and well-drawn character study; usually has little to no plot

Err, not quite.

The way I like to think about it is that, if we're to describe "plot" as "material events that happen," then in commercial and straight-up genre fiction, the plot and the story are more or less the same.

In literary fiction, the plot and the story are different. The story happens beneath the plot. You can still have literary fiction with lots of plot. It's just that the plot is a vehicle for the story, rather than their being one-and-the-same.

That's not to say commercial fiction can't have lots of things going on under the surface of the plot. It can and very often does. But it's not the focus or driving force of the novel.

(I'm using the above terms for "story" and "plot" differently from Mr. Bransford does; this is just the way I like to think about it. Maybe it makes no sense to you.)

We really need a sticky on all this somewhere...

WordCount said:
According to what I read in the above article, Nathan stated that half of the lit. novels he gets have next to no plot, and it's all working inside the mind of the character. It's based on small decisions, the facts of every-day life, etc.

Well, see the post above.

Xelebes · Feb 26, 2012

WordCount said:
According to what I read in the above article, Nathan stated that half of the lit. novels he gets have next to no plot, and it's all working inside the mind of the character. It's based on small decisions, the facts of every-day life, etc.

What he received as an agent. Doesn't mean he took any of the plotless on. In fact, I'd be safe to say he rejected the plotless character studies.

WordCount · Feb 26, 2012

HoneyBadger said:
No, the *bad* stuff is plotless.

There aren't a lot of universal truths regarding fiction, but one generally true-truth is that literary fiction requires more work from the reader than mainstream fiction does. I'm gonna call this a literary answer and let you, the reader, figure out what the hell I'm talking about because I'm too tired to think about this so much.

I think that's the best summary I've gotten.

To be honest, I think of novels the same way I think of movies.

There are the more intellectual ones like Inception.

And then, there are the less intellectual ones like Predator.

Of course, there are mixes of the two like the first two terminator films.

On the whole, I enjoy them all, but I read more things like Terminator than I do Inception or Premonition.

thothguard51 · Feb 26, 2012

Lots of genre fiction deal with the human condition as well, like Fahrenheit 451. They just don't dwell on it for 30 pages...

kuwisdelu · Feb 26, 2012

Alessandra Kelley said:
(and Literary Fiction is a genre, even if they pretend it isn't)

It's not, and don't get me wrong, I don't mean that in a pretentious way, but it's like saying YA is a genre. Genres describe the content of a novel, something about what you can expect to happen. Categories like YA and literary don't. They inform you something about the style and the nature of the story.

buz · Feb 26, 2012

To which I said, "Why does every story need to have some grand message about being human? What's wrong with a story just being fun and exciting?" And my teacher said I don't have the mindset of an artist, which just confused me even more.

He sounds like a pretentious ********.

Am I just looking at literary fiction the wrong way? Or is it something else?

You can appreciate it without liking it. If you don't like it (after trying more of it)...you can accept that, and say, okay, that was boring and I didn't like reading it, but the way in which it illuminated x was pretty brilliant. I dunno, that's kinda the way I feel about watching really old movies, or listening to strange indie music, or seeing an expressionist painting, or hearing someone play the saxophone. I have this entirely irrational stupid aversion to the noise a saxophone makes (I realize how dumb this is, believe me), and I hate listening to it, but I can appreciate what it's attempting to do for the sound of the song, if that makes sense.

I mean, the heart wants what the heart wants, and if you like entertainment more than grand statements about humanity, then that's what it is. Although it doesn't mean that literary novels have nothing to offer for you--you could, maybe, learn from them, even if you don't like them.

kuwisdelu · Feb 26, 2012

WordCount said:
I think that's the best summary I've gotten.

To be honest, I think of novels the same way I think of movies.

There are the more intellectual ones like Inception.

And then, there are the less intellectual ones like Predator.

I wouldn't think about literary vs commercial that way. I don't think of genre fiction as any less intellectual than literary fiction. Just because it can engage the reader in a different way doesn't make it more or less intellectual. And it's too shakily close to some people's mistaken idea that literary fiction of a certain genre is just "good" genre fiction that "transcends" its genre, which is just stupid.

WordCount · Feb 26, 2012

thothguard51 said:
Lots of genre fiction deal with the human condition as well, like Fahrenheit 451. They just don't dwell on it for 30 pages...

Fahrenheit is definitely a profound, wonderful read. If my copy wasn't marked up one side and down the other (my teacher believes in EXTREME annotation) I'd read my copy again. (I think I may just buy another copy.)

I love books that study on the happenings of people in certain locations (like Under the Dome did with small towns) but I'm not THAT interested with the human condition.

Also, I agree with what everyone above has said about literary snobbery, it's unnecessary. A good book is just that, a good book.

Alessandra Kelley · Feb 26, 2012

kuwisdelu said:
It's not, and don't get me wrong, I don't mean that in a pretentious way, but it's like saying YA is a genre. Genres describe the content of a novel, something about what you can expect to happen. Categories like YA and literary don't. They inform you something about the style and the nature of the story.

Thanks. I think I have been sloppy in my thinking about books, and I have considered what you rightly call categories to be the equivalent of genres.

(Does that mean that "science fiction" is a category, not a genre, since it doesn't really tell you what you can expect in the story?)

kuwisdelu · Feb 26, 2012

Alessandra Kelley said:
(Does that mean that "science fiction" is a category, not a genre, since it doesn't really tell you what you can expect in the story?)

It does tell you something about what you can expect from the content of it. You can expect that in whatever happens, science or technology will play some kind of forefront role in the plot. The more specific you get in the sub genres of spec fic, the more it informs you about the kind of settings, characters, tone, etc. you can expect, and all have various tropes associated with them.

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